Getty Celebrates Long-Awaited West Coast Debut of Reynolds’ “Portrait of Mai”

The J. Paul Getty Museum celebrates the arrival of “Portrait of Mai,” a painting by leading 18th-century English portraitist Sir Joshua Reynolds. The renowned work of art will go on display in the Getty Center’s West Pavilion from Sept. 15, 2026 through March 14, 2027. Purchased jointly with London’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in 2023, the painting is traveling to the United States for the first time.

“The painting’s arrival to Los Angeles is a joyous occasion, as it just completed a whirlwind tour across the U.K., from London to Bradford, Cambridge, and Plymouth. Our global partnership with the National Portrait Gallery in London has allowed us to present this striking painting to audiences in both the U.K. and California where it overlooks the Pacific Ocean from where Mai hailed,” said Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “We anticipate that this long-famous but rarely seen masterpiece will become a favorite amongst visitors in Los Angeles during its stay and we are especially excited that it will be on display during the LA28 Summer Olympics, where we expect many international audiences will get to access and enjoy it.”

“We are extremely proud of this groundbreaking partnership with Getty which enabled our two institutions to jointly acquire 'Portrait of Mai' and share it with audiences across the U.K. and the U.S. Following a two-year display at the National Portrait Gallery in London and a year-long national tour with a major public engagement program, we are thrilled it will now travel to Los Angeles for the first time. Long recognized as one of the most important works in the history of portraiture, it is wonderful that audiences in L.A. will now have the opportunity to encounter the work first-hand, while new research is undertaken to deepen our understanding of this extraordinary portrait and its remarkable subject.”

Mai arrived in England in 1774 after voyaging from Tahiti with the Royal Navy. Remembered as the first Polynesian to visit Britain, Mai also had a political purpose—to secure support for reclaiming his homeland of Raiatea, seized during his childhood, and to avenge a conflict that claimed his father’s life. He joined Captain James Cook’s expedition and spent two years in England. Quickly embraced by London’s high society, he became a celebrity whose appearances, clothing and reactions to British life were widely reported. In 1776, he returned to Polynesia where his life ended prematurely around 1779.

First exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776, Reynolds’ imposing full-length portrait of Mai capitalized on the subject’s celebrity as well as popular fascination with Cook’s voyages to the South Pacific. Mai’s tapa (barkcloth) robe and headdress and tattooed hands signal his Polynesian identity, as does the tropical landscape background. At the same time, his pose and gesture recall ancient Roman sculptures familiar to European viewers at the time. Reynolds provocatively introduced a tension between Indigenous traditions and Western conventions, making this portrait a powerful symbol of early global encounters and their often-dramatic aftermath.

Upon its arrival to Getty, the painting underwent its first-ever comprehensive technical analysis. The five-week study convened a diverse group of experts from Getty and NPG who conducted new imaging, examined pigments and materials used by the artist and compared it with a preceding sketch of Mai’s head. Initial observations and results brought to light Reynolds’ use of thick and textured paint in certain areas of the painting, showing he reworked those parts of the composition with multiple colors and layers. Imaging also suggests that he used a lead-containing pigment, likely lead white, as well as vermilion, carbon black and iron earth pigments. Other pigments the artist used will be confirmed through further analysis.

“Portrait of Mai” will be displayed alongside other 18th-century highlights from Getty’s collection, including paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Pompeo Batoni, Francisco Goya, and sculptures by Jean-Antoine Houdon, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt and Francis Harwood.

“We decided to place Mai’s likeness alongside a group of full-length portraits of his contemporaries to demonstrate that this particular format was usually reserved for members of the aristocracy,” said Davide Gasparotto, senior curator of paintings at the Getty Museum. “Reynolds’ painting of Mai was not executed on commission but rather by the artist’s own initiative. It represents an exceptional achievement within the context of 18th-century portraiture.”

“Among the sculpted busts we selected for this presentation is Francis Harwood’s “Bust of a Man,” which stands out as one of the earliest sculpted portraits of a Black person in European art,” said Anne-Lise Desmas, senior curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the Getty Museum. “We have also included a recently acquired bust, the “Portrait of Rosa Taddei” by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, depicting a renowned Italian woman poet of the period.”

Between Sept. 18 and 20, visitors will be able to take part in a series of free programs, including a bookmark making workshop inspired by traditional Tahitian tattoo designs and a tapa barkcloth making demonstration. On Sept. 20, Hampton Sides, author of “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook,” and Richard Rand, associate director for collections at the Getty Museum, will present a public conversation that dives into Mai’s personal story and Reynolds’s extraordinary portrait.

During the Getty Center closure, “Portrait of Mai” will go on display at the Getty Villa for about six months. The painting will also be included in a major traveling exhibition, “Faces of Fame: Inventing Celebrity in Europe, 1750-1800,” which will be presented first at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and then at the Getty Center after it reopens.